The Ravager Lord
by Dirgesworn
Summary: The first piece in a two part story of what could be the end of Outland and possibly Azeroth as well... When a cannibal and his horde of ravager minions threaten the balance, it will take nothing more than courage and a some betrayal to win... R
1. Chapter 1 The Feast Begins

**The Ravager Lord**

**Chapter 1 The Feast Begins**

Could this be hell? No… this is far worse… Mother? Where are you, mother? I cannot find you… I am so cold and afraid. You said you would be there for me… So where are you? Do not leave me here… Mother? Damn it… Where are you? Did you really think I would die here… alone? I am not alone. These beasts of hell are my new family now! You hear me? I do not need you anymore, mother! Death shall reign in this accursed world you have left me in… Destruction, suffering, and chaos shall ensue by my hand! My children and I will feast on both mortals and demons alike… And we will never be satisfied. No one is safe from our hunger… The ire of the Ravager Lord is at hand!

Demon activity had been quiet for a portion of the month. Nothing seemed more suspicious than a lack of demonic movement on the red earth of Hellfire Peninsula. Even the fel orcs of the citadel were keeping to themselves, locking themselves away in their halls and ramparts. No wildlife wandered in the west, where all was quiet. Any who ventured there would never return, striking an ominous fear in the minds of the faithful soldiers of Honor Hold. This held to be truer than before when a lone soldier, belonging to a battalion that has been missing in action for over a month, returned to Honor Hold.

He was crawling on his stomach, pushing himself forward with only one arm. His left arm and both legs were gone, his body red with the stain of his own blood. How he managed to return was nothing less than a miracle.

"They… they were everywhere!" he shouted, his sanity long since gone, "From the thorns and rocks they came! Clawing… Goring… Our horses were devoured in seconds! And then _he_ came…"

"What does this all mean?" asked one of the generals to the clerics that tended to the soldier's wounds, "He spoke of thorns… Could he be speaking of the ravagers in the western mountain pass?"

And he was. That very night, just before the poor soldier died, he uttered, "The Ravager Lord comes…" News of his final words struck fear and confusion into the heart of Honor Hold. The question on everyone's mind was, "Who is the Ravager Lord?" A gnome scientist, Twinkle Fizzlebomb, attempted to calm the residents of the stronghold's fears.

"You garden variety quilfang ravager, native to the thorny western borders of Hellfire Peninsula, are not as dangerous as you may think they are. They are of little intelligence at best and not too capable of organized operations as a pack. Besides, these beasts tend to be no more than five feet in height. You all have nothing to worry about! There is no way that we, the seasoned and strong of Honor Hold, could possibly be overwhelmed by some small group of ravagers…"

The next day a trumpet could be heard from outside Honor Hold. Coming in was a scouting party, riding atop their steeds with trumpets blazing. Force Commander Danath Trollbane immediately stepped outside his keep to see what all the noise was about.

"Ravagers, sir! Thousands coming from the western mountain pass!"

And just as they had said, thousands upon thousands of ravagers came, from the three-foot venomspitters to the five-foot adult ravagers. To the surprise of Twinkle and the congregation of Honor Hold, a good number of ravagers were roughly six to seven feet tall. Despite the size, each beast looked more vicious than the last. Their appearance was unsettling to even the bravest of souls, including Danath Trollbane. But that did not stop him from taking command to save his stronghold.

"Don't just stand there and wait for our doom! Let's take the fight to them!"

Without another thought every marksman manned their posts on the western wall and its towers. The soldiers closed the gates on every side, readying themselves with boomsticks and bows to fire upon any ravager that dares make its way past the wall. The gryphon master, Amish Wildhammer, seeing an opportunity to utilize his pets, manned every gryphon with a rider to drop bombs on the oncoming hordes.

"Just drop 'em when you see the fel of their eyes!" he said to his bombardiers.

After they were given their orders they took flight, westward toward the ravager onslaught that was about to hail Honor Hold. At every chance they got they assailed with their fiery bombs, unaware of the true danger from below. It was not long before they heard an abysmal whisper in the winds.

"Gore… Slash… Maim… Fire and devour your feathered feasts, my children!"

Just as the whispers died down, they were struck with a volley of venomous acid from below. The venomspitters were living up to their name, firing wave after wave of their deadly spit at the flyers above. Most every gryphon was so wounded by the attacks that they fell from the sky, them and their riders quickly devoured by the ravagers that they fell into.

"Devour them all!" whispered the voice again, "Cut them open and feast on their flesh!"

"Retreat! Drop all your bombs and flee back to the safety of the stronghold!"

And so they did. Meanwhile, marksmen at the walls and towers fired their bullets and arrows at every ravager they saw. But they could not stop them all, for there were far too many to count and they were coming in too fast. Soon they began to scale the wall, and those who did not get shot off attacked the marksmen head-on. Also, the venomspitters were making it a priority to pick off the marksmen one by one from the ground. Eventually every marksman was consumed by the ravagers who made quick work on eating their corpses to the bone.

"This is where we make our stand, ladies and gentlemen!" shouted Danath Trollbane. "Fire at will! Let not a single ravager live! Let's show them who is really on the top of the food chain!"

And as he said this, a lithe, humanoid figure leaped to the highest tower, looking down on Honor Hold with malevolent, sulfuric eyes. Danath saw into those eyes, filled with great rage and hunger. The figure had decorated its body with the crimson bones of ancient ravagers, with a ravager skull on each shoulder and claws on his fingers. He was a human, his face as pallid as the moon and teeth as sharp as a ravager. His eyes, as stated earlier, were the color of sulfur and held a hunger and ire only a madman could hold. He laughed maniacally at those below, soon to be struck by a wave of ravagers.

"Danath Trollbane!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, as if trying to deafen the ears of the soldiers, "We will devour you, Trollbane! With out own claws we will rend your flesh! With our own teeth we will gnaw on your bones! Yes! Writhe, damn you! Writhe!"

The madman then jumped down several yards away from the Commander. He charged straight for Danath Trollbane, his teeth bared and his claws ready for the kill. Danath readied himself to parry then counter the foul creature, but the madman, just before he reached Danath, lunged to the ground and pushed himself in the air. He then landed an aerial kick into Danath's chest, forcing the commander to the ground with one blow. The madman then took a large bite out of Danath's left shoulder, devouring his flesh in one gulp. Danath Trollbane yelled out in pain, begging his comrades to help him.

Without hesitation a good dozen soldiers charged at the fiend. Seeing that some of the soldiers had gathered the courage to fight, the madman leaped to the safety of the wall.

"With one final laugh he proclaimed, "Delicious! Feast, my children! Eat your fill! There is many good eating here!"

The horde of ravagers, having been still and quiet since the arrival of the madman, continued their assault on Honor Hold. The madman, from that day forward known as the Ravager Lord, only watched in sadistic delight as every man and woman, including a very much wounded Danath Trollbane, were slain and gorged upon by the ravager onslaught.

The next few weeks were grim and dark. The ravagers, having devoured all mortal life in Hellfire Peninsula after the fall of Thrallmar and Honor Hold, turned on the demons in the north and east. The blood and flesh of the devoured demons made the ravagers and their offspring become wicked, twisted mockeries of what was already the grotesque form of the casual ravager. Even the Ravager Lord himself, not at all satisfied with the gorging of Honor Hold and Thrallmar, took part in the feasting.

The ravagers began to multiply faster than the demons could reinforce from their portals from the Twisting Nether. Eventually, the abysmal Lord Kazzak ordered that every demon of the Burning Legion retreat to the safety of the Twisting Nether, where they would destroy the portals from the inside-out. The Ravager Lord claimed total dominance over Hellfire Peninsula, but it was not enough. He still hungered for more, and he would not be whole until all of Outland was conquered and all its denizens devoured. Perhaps only then will he be satisfied…


	2. Chapter 2 The Gorging Siege

**The Ravager Lord**

**Chapter 2 The Gorging Siege**

I must… have… more! More flesh, more bone, more fear for my children. Prey tastes better with even a small dash of terror in their hearts. Bite… gore… gnaw… devour… We must have more! My children must be fed, and hell is not enough! Heaven and earth must also fall to our hunger. And they will… for the Swarm cannot be denied!

The siege must have lasted for at least a month now. Since the conquering of Hellfire Peninsula, the Ravager Lord and his ravager Swarm have taken complete control of the Zangarmarsh and northern Terrokar Forest, devouring all wild and sentient life in their path. Several individuals have sworn complete allegiance to the Ravager Lord, proclaiming him as the 'God of Hunger' and becoming cannibals to prove their loyalty to him. They have become his Hungersworn, for they now share in his hunger. The Hungersworn also share in his mental control over the Swarm, each controlling a certain legion of ravagers and their offspring. But in doing so, they have given their minds and souls to the Ravager Lord, losing any and all individuality they once had. The Swarm grew by the day and their hunger was yet to be satisfied.

Day after day, night after night the Swarm committed endless onslaughts against the walls of the Lower City of Shattrath City. They would not stop coming, and the defenders of the city grew weary with each passing day. Although the Aldor, Scryers, and even most of the city's refugees rose up to defend Outland's last remaining sanctuary, their efforts showed little effectiveness against the infinitely growing numbers of the Swarm. After a month of battle and little sign of reinforcements from the outside world, the almighty naaru called A'dal, a being of pure, uncorrupted Light, made a prophecy to the denizens of Shattrath City.

"By dusk of the next evening, Shattrath City will fall to the Swarm, and so I too shall succumb to the Ravager Lord's hunger. Escape to the Aldor Rise, destroy the elevator, and flee through the exit to the fields of Nagrand. From there, take flight to the world of Azeroth through the portal my naaru brethren will create. Outland will fall, but I will stay behind to hold them off as long as possible…"

With heavy hearts the remainder of Shattrath City's forces disbanded to Nagrand, just as A'dal ordered. After the last of the survivors fled, A'dal destroyed the exit to Nagrand, so that the Swarm could not follow them. Although certain doom awaited A'dal, he glowed with a righteous light, ready to destroy all his enemies with the power of the Light.

"Show yourself, Ravager Lord!" he proclaimed. "Come here so that I may destroy you with holy fire!"

The hordes of ravagers skittered away from A'dal, supposedly fleeing from his divine might. But A'dal knew better than that. The Ravager Lord was coming, and it was here that the fate of Outland would be decided. Within moments of waiting the Ravager Lord appeared before A'dal. His appearance had been altered since his assault on Honor Hold and Thrallmar. Having devoured demonic flesh and drank in fel blood, his characteristics had changed to not only a human with ravager armor, but also that of a demon as well. His black wings spanned a good ten feet, granting him the ability to fly. His eyes glowed a hellish scarlet and his fangs bore the resemblance of a demon's. The little skin that was not fused with his crimson ravager armor was as black and red as burning coal. The Ravager Lord laughed beside his Hungersworn in mockery of the Light, while at the same time salivating for the meal ahead.

"Patron of the Light…" spoke the Ravager Lord in an abysmal, echoing voice, "I have hungered for this day, the day we become one in being and soul! I shall feast upon your infinite energies, and I will truly become a god! Have you not foreseen this day, A'dal of the Light?"

"I have…" said an unshaken A'dal, "And just as I have seen this day, so do I see another… A day the Swarm will fail, a day when you and I, Samael, will die, our forms forever cast into oblivion…"

"Dare not speak my mortal name, A'dal, for it is forsaken to me! I am the Ravager Lord, God of Hunger, and this day will mark the eternity of the Swarm!"

With that said, the Ravager Lord took flight, diving into A'dal with his mouth opened wide. When they collided, a great tremor shook all of Outland, and a burst of Light pulsed throughout Shattrath City. The white beam of Light that always emitted from the center of the city where A'dal dwelled turned to violet. Where the naaru and the Ravager Lord made contact now stood a mass of flesh, tendrils, and claws. At the top of this hideous form sat the torso of the Ravager Lord, his body one with the grotesque being that pulsed like a heartbeat and radiated foul, demonic energies. Within the minds of his Hungersworn and all the Swarm he spoke out…

"Yes… The power… it is… overwhelming…"

There was a silence amongst the Swarm. The Ravager Lord looked upon all he had created, taking a moment to gather himself.

"Today… I am a god!"

A massive roar of jubilation rose from the Swarm.

"So long as I reign as your god, you will never hunger… So long as I rule over Outland and continue to feed on other worlds, the Swarm will never die… The age of the ravagers has come!"

"But how are we to travel to other worlds, my lord?" spoke out a human Hungersworn.

"Do not doubt the newfound power of the Ravager Lord!" barked a blood elf Hungersworn. "He will find a way…"

"That I have, my children," echoed the voice of the Ravager Lord. "I have been granted all powers A'dal once possessed before our assimilation… I may now open portals to any world of my choosing… including the fruitful world of Azeroth… But first, let us reap this pitiful world of the feast it offers the Swarm!"

As the Swarm dispersed to the four corners of Outland, the Ravager Lord had a diabolical plot in mind.

"Soon, you too, Azeroth, will fall…"


End file.
